Cameron is the mutts nuts but what sort of mutt?

While some bloggers are trying to wind me up by writing posts about Tories that I don’t even know I thought I would focus on the bread and butter issues in politics at the moment.

Namely, the types of dog people associate each of the National party leaders with. Apparently, many regard Chris Clegg as being most like a Chihuahua (I do love words that are spelt nothing like how they sound) whilst Gordon Brown is a St Bernard (same as the year before) whilst Prime Minister-elect David Cameron has gone from being compared to a Poodle a year ago to being a Labrador now.

There is more good news within the BPIX poll, which interviewed over 2000 people for the poll – more than some real polsters, as the poll suggests that people would rather sit next to David Cameron or Chris Clegg than Gordon Brown at a dinner party.

For those that don’t believe these stats to be important (how could you not?) the poll also (rather boringly) asked about voting intentions as well with 49% supporting the Conservatives, 26% supporting Labour and just 14% supporting the Liberal Democrats basically in line with most polls.

For this story, I doff my hat to the excellent Two Doctors blog. Here is the link to the story on the Beeb.

More good news from YouGov

As per usual these days, the latest YouGov poll makes for good reading for the Scottish Conservative party and for the Conservative party as a whole putting the party on 23% - which is just above the average of 22.2% that the Scottish Conservatives are polling in YouGov polls.

The voting intentions of the sample polled are below:

Lab - 30%
SNP - 28%
Con - 23%
LD - 16%

When it comes to how well Gordon Brown is doing as Prime Minister, 26% thought he was doing very or fairly well whilst 70% thought he was doing very or fairly badly giving him a net approval rating of -44%.

As for the next Prime Minister, 57% believed that David Cameron was doing very or fairly well compared to just 35% who thought he was doing very or fairly badly giving him a net approval rating in Scotland on +22% - a lead over the current PM of 66%!

People in Scotland have constantly been told by commentators that there is no Cameron bounce in Scotland and that a Conservative Government would be one without a Scottish mandate. Well, it seems that the Scottish Conservatives are up a third in the polls since 2005 – in line with the Party nationally - and now we see that Cameron is far more popular that the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Two bad polls for Gordon Brown

I feel most of the Bendy Wendy stuff will have been covered by every other blogger as well as most newspapers so I am going to enter slightly silly season on my blog looking at some of the more left field stories/polls involving Gordon Brown in the last few days.

I doff my hat to Guido Fawkes for this tip off. It seems that Gordon Brown will become the first incumbent Prime Minister to not be featured in Madame Tussauds for over 150 years after a poll of 6,333 people found that 83.8% (5308) did not want Gordon Brown featured with just 16.2% wanting the current PM immortalised in wax.

One of my Labour voting friends is also dismayed at the results of a poll carried out by Grazia, Britain’s first weekly glossy magazine (apparently). The poll showed that of the women interviewed, 18 percent voted Conservative in 2005 compared to 27% voting for Labour but if an election was to be held tomorrow the figures would be somewhat different with 33% saying they’d vote Conservative compared to just 14% voting for Labour. 37% of women also think that the Conservative party will do more for women compared to 29% who think it is the Labour party that will do more for women. When it comes down to telling the truth, 26% of respondents think David Cameron is more likely to keep his promises, ten percent higher than the amount that believe Gordon Brown will keep his.

My favourite question listed a series of words, including intelligent; approachable; honest etc, and asked the respondents what words they would most associate with both Gordon Brown and David Cameron. The top three for Gordon were: intelligent (41%), Old Fashioned (46%) and Boring (50%) with the top 3 for Cameron being: modern thinking (53%), intelligent (41% -meaning that the respondents think DC is just as intelligent as Brown) and approachable (39%).

Wendy hung out to dry by Brown

I just watched Prime Ministers Questions for the first time in a wee while, interesting to see the next Prime Minister having Gordon Brown over a barrel. He asked Gordon Brown, who had previously said that there’s a line in Britain that pitted "those of us who are prepared to support the shared values of the union" against "those who are prepared to play fast and loose with the union and put the whole future of the union at risk" and failed to back Wendy Alexander over her referendum calls, if he backed Wendy Alexander over her referendum calls.

Brown responded by stating that Wendy hadn’t said that, when asked again by Cameron if he backed Wendy he again refused to answer the question. It’s quite clear that Wendy has been cut adrift again by Gordon Brown. Although it’s difficult to see how she can remain as leader when the person who put her there refuses to back her it is difficult to see if this really is rock bottom for Wendy’s leadership or just another day.

A further to my last post and whether or not Labour can lodge a referendum bill:

From Scottish Parliament Standing Orders (9.14). Given that the SNP have clearly stated their intent to bring forward a Bill on this subject in the lifetime of this Parliament, any such Members’ Bill would fall.

12. The member who lodged the final proposal obtains the right to introduce a Bill to give effect to it only if—

(a) no later than the end of the period referred to in paragraph 11—

(i) at least 18 other members have notified the Clerk of their support for the final proposal; and

(ii) the members supporting the final proposal include members of at least half of the political parties (or groups formed under Rule 5.2.2) represented in the Parliamentary Bureau; and


(b) the Executive has not given, by the end of the period referred to in paragraph 11 (or has waived its right to give, within that period), an indication under paragraph 13. [see below]


13. An indication under this paragraph is an indication, given in writing by a member of the Scottish Executive or junior Scottish Minister to the member who lodged the final proposal and to the Clerk (who shall arrange for the indication to be printed in the Business Bulletin)—

(a) that the Executive will initiate legislation, within the same session, to give effect to the final proposal; or

(b) that Her Majesty’s Government has initiated or will initiate legislation, during the current or next session of the UK Parliament, to give effect to the final proposal.

The right to give such an indication may be waived at any time during the period referred to in paragraph 11 by notice in writing to the member who lodged the final proposal and to the Clerk; and such a notice shall be printed in the Business Bulletin.

YouGov/Sunday Times Survey

I’ve just received some quite interesting results from a YouGov/Sunday Times Westminster voting intentions opinion poll which are not good news for Gordon Brown and Labour.

Some quite interesting findings, for example 47% of women are likely to vote Conservative compared to 27% who will vote Labour whilst in the male category 42% are likely to vote Conservative compared to 29% who are going to vote for Labour. When it comes to age range the results are rather positive for the Conservatives as they defeat Labour 43% to 28% in the 18-34 year olds, 39%-34% in the 35 to 54 years category whilst comfortably defeating Labour, 50% to 22%, in the over 55 category.

The region section is broken down into five areas; London, Rest of South, Midlands/Wales, North and Scotland. Of these five areas Labour only wins two – Scotland and the North but only just edge the North by 1%. As expected the Conservatives win comfortably in the South – 52% to 23%. The Party also do very well in London winning 48% to 31% whilst also crushing Labour in the Midlands/Wales area 50% to 21%. Although Labour wins the result for the sample in Scotland is quite positive for the Conservatives. This is quite consistent to recent polls which have the Conservatives between 17% and 21% in Scotland.

A rough breakdown of seats in Scotland would have Labour on around 30, the Lib Dems on ten or thereabouts, the Nats on around 15 whilst the Tories would be on 4 or so.

The poll is also quite positive regarding the performance thus far of David Cameron. Across the whole of the UK 44% of people think he is doing fairly well as Conservative leader as opposed to 26% of people who think Gordon Brown is doing fairly well as Prime Minister. Also, only 11% of people think Cameron is doing very badly compared to 28% who think Gordon Brown is doing very badly. In Scotland 43% of people think Gordon Brown is doing fairly well and 29% think he is doing fairly badly. When it comes to David Cameron 44% of Scots think he is doing fairly well with 27% thinking he is doing fairly badly with more people thinking Gordon Brown is doing very badly – 19% - than think David Cameron is doing very badly – 12%.

Tory party in demand

Not only were the Scottish Conservatives needed to help the budget - hence the concessions that were made by SNP ministers to Tory demands, but now it seems that Nick Clegg (for those that don't know, he's the Lib Dem leader) had laid down his conditions for working with a minority Tory Government at Westminster. After 11 years in the political wilderness, it's nice to be wanted!

Are the Lib Dems better off without a leader?

An ICM poll that's to appear in tomorrow's Guardian shows that perhaps they are.

Skynews is reporting that in the latest poll the Lib Dems are on 18%, up 4% on the last poll. Quite surprising that they should get a leaderless bounce.

Sky reports that voter perceptions of Gordon Brown have been battered over the last month. 29% of respondents said their view of Brown had deteriorated and only 8% improved. 21% were more favourable to David Cameron; 17% less so.

Sunday Papers

Eddie Barnes in today's Scotland on Sunday writes that the Tories could do well to copy the SNP's tactics that ousted a tired, visionless Labour Party in Scotland.

"Most obviously, Cameron has shamelessly nicked Salmond's central message from last April's election campaign. The SNP's election campaign slogan was simple: "It's Time," their election posters declared. The Conservatives have now adopted "It's Time for a Change" in all their own campaigning literature. Both parties have understood the huge importance of pendulums in politics - that innate sense we hold that, after one party has had a lengthy period in office, there is a certain historical inevitability about a change in Government. Salmond recognised this was one of his most powerful assets: now Cameron has followed suit.

While I imagine the Tory campaign slogan has met with scorn from some, I think it is difficult to convey the message that we are trying to covey without using something simple. The point of a slogan is that it is simple and memorable.

Sun gives the Conservatives 3% lead

"The Tories have swept to a three-point lead in the wake of Gordon Brown’s disastrous week, an exclusive poll for The Sun reveals today. David Cameron has steered his party to 41 per cent support – with Labour trailing on just 38 per cent." - The Sun

Can we believe what the Prime Minister says? Harriet Harman shakes her head

Hilarious video on playpolitical of Harriet Harman shaking her head when David Cameron asks if the nation can any longer trust Gordon Brown.

Question Time

She's getting a bit of a doing on Question Time as well, particularly from former Sun Editor Kelvin MacKenzie, always good fun to watch.

Cameron 1 - Brown 0

I have just watched PMQ's on youtube there, what a performance from David Cameron. Those who haven't seen it can view it here. (Someone can perhaps tell me who you put a youtube video onto a post.)

Anyway, seems like various media outlets are falling over themselves to praise Cameron on yesterday's performance. The Herald claims that Cameron drew first blood, The FT, believes Brown was on the end of a "mauling", Matthew Parris in The Times believes it is the closest it comes in the Commons to burning a man at the stake, the leader piece in the Telegraph believes Cameron berated a weakened Prime Minister while Ann Treneman in the Times parliamentary sketch described PMQs as a disaster for Gordon Brown.

All in all a good day at the office for David Cameron. Let's just hope Cameron can maintain this momentum.

Tory Conference

So that's Tory conference over, ending with an absolutely tremendous speech from David Cameron.

I voted for Cameron as our leader and certainly would describe myself as a Cameroonian and I was deeply impressed by Cameron's conference speech. His delivery was fantastic and he spoke without notes, much better than the rigid and dull speech from Gordon Brown at the Labour conference.

I was also mightily impressed by Cameron stating he wasn't ashamed of his upbringing and education at Eton. I genuinely do not believe that the electorate care what University, if any, their Prime Minister went to, what the electorate want is a leader that they can believe in.

Whenever the election is, I hope and pray that we do well as otherwise the knives will be out for Cameron which could lead the party to going down the knee jerk right wing route, something that I would hate to see happen, didn't work in 2001 and 2005 but it hasn't stopped many criticising Cameron and harking back to those glory days(!!) of '01 and '05.

Disgusting

Seems some Labour researcher believes that Wendy Alexander doesn't get enough alowances to be a party leader.

Interesting that the comparison has been made between the extra £20k that Wendy receives for being opposition leader and the £640k that David Cameron receives. Another in the long line of 'interesting' contributions made by Labour MSPs during the allowances review.

First we had Lord Foulkes calling for more allowances for staff, covered here, then we had Pauline McNeil claiming she doesn't get enough of an allowance for overnight stays then calling for more money in order for her to have her own speechwriter - apparently she can't be expected to do everything, after all, she's only on £53k and now we have Wendy can't do the job properly with this amount of money.

When apathy towards politics is so high and politicians in this country are treated with such contempt, it beggars belief that politicians should be calling for more money.

Should there be a snap election?

I've been back home this weekend with limited access to t'internet and thus had to do other things, such as reading newspapers, I'd sorta forgotten they came in print form, shows last time I used a resource other than the net for finding out the news.

Anyway, I was thinking about the whole snap election issue and to be quite honest I am torn. Every now and again we have some arsehole from the party's past, either Lord Tebbit or Michael Ancram, criticising the Cameron leadership. Now, unlike many political commentators who claim that this is bad news for Cameron and the Tories, I believe every time on of these political dinosaurs, dinosaurs that no longer have any relevance, criticise the party, it shows that the party is moving away from these people and thus in a much better direction, certainly to attracting swing voters.

I was pleasantly surprised to read about Cameron's tax cut pledges this morning, tax cuts for first time home buyers; the abolition of the hated inheritance tax as well as a tax on gas guzzling vehicles(this one I will come back to in a bit) and as we are a party with tax cuts in our DNA it is important that announcements such as these are made with the proposal of the abolition of the inheritance tax being a policy that would be particularly welcomed by the majority of people in the UK.

The tax on gas guzzling vehicles may be a tad more divisive though and let me explain. For some, particularly those in the more rural areas, gas guzzling 4x4's are somewhat a necessity to get on with their work and their daily lives but for those living in more urbanised areas, they are nothing but an accessory. So while in principal I agree with this policy, there needs to be exemptions but I am sure there will be.

Right now the opinion polls may be predicting electoral disaster for David Cameron's Conservative Party but it is worth remember how close we were percentage wise when it was Tony Blair (then at the height of his popularity) against Michael Howard (Well...hardly the most popular) I believe many of the top target seats down south will be turned blue in an election and I also believe a successful conference for DC will see a boost in his poll ratings.

What we need though, is some concrete policy and I hope DC can deliver on that.